Author
Topic: The unimportant news thread (Read 192083 times)

Ephemerid

"They knew more about me than I did," Horsley said Thursday in an interview from his London home. "They said, 'We know you're a heroin addict, we know you're a crack addict, we know you're involved in prostitution.' "

So why did it take eight hours of interviewing then for them to make up their minds? Was this about being fair minded I wonder?

Mike

He should be thankful they didn't ship him off to Syria to be beaten with steel cables like poor Canadian Maher Arar...

DEEPWATER, Mo. -- Officials are trying to decide whether to file charges against a Missouri man who fatally shot his wife while trying to install a satellite TV system in their home.

Patsy Long, 34, of Deepwater, died after being shot in the chest with a .22-caliber handgun on Saturday. Her husband, Ronald Long, fired the shot from the inside of their home after several unsuccessful efforts to punch a hole through the exterior wall using other means.

Henry County sheriff's deputies said the woman was hit by the second of two shots fired by her husband.

Long was given CPR by neighbors and family until medics arrived, police said. She was transported by air ambulance, but was pronounced dead at the hospital just after 6 p.m.

Sheriff's department spokesman Maj. Robert Hills said a person involved in such a case normally would be charged with manslaughter, but that was up to the prosecutor.

"Once we complete a diagram of the incident, we will be submitting everything to the prosecuting attorney and let him decide if he wants to press criminal charges," Hills said.

On Tuesday morning, Henry County Prosecuting Attorney Richard M. Shields said he has yet to receive the case from the sheriff's department.

Henry County Coroner Scott Largent declined to release details about Patsy Long's death until the sheriff's department completes its investigation.

Neighbor Mark Lassince said he believed it was a tragic accident.

He was taking a shower when the woman’s son knocked on his door and told him that his mother had been shot. Lassince went to try to help, but Patsy Long was already dead, he said.

Lassince described Patsy Long as a good person who always took care of her family.

I know....both our counteries are quietly eroding freedoms. Soon it is to be fingerprinting everyone at the new part of Heathrow Airport; this, so people can circulate round the shops and not be able to swop tickets with one another to board the wrong plane to blow it up.....what are the photos in passports for I wonder?

DAUNTSEY, England, March 27 (UPI) -- A retired couple has been barred from repairing their flood-damaged house in the English countryside because a rare newt may have set up housekeeping.

That means Margie and John Histed may have to stay in a trailer on their property in Wiltshire for months, The Daily Mail reported.

The great crested newt may be living in a blocked drainage ditch that flooded the house last year and overflowed again last week. The Histeds were told that they cannot unblock the ditch until it is searched for newts -- even though a healthy newt population is living in a nearby pond, the newspaper said.

"It's not that we're not sympathetic towards wildlife -- in fact, we're very keen on it and understand the need to protect certain species," John Histed said. "But it seems ridiculous that we can't protect our property from more flood damage for many months because newts may be there."

The interesting thing I find with stories like these is that ones involving females are almost non-existent, despite the anatomy obviously making sex with inanimate objects easier. Sure males have Beethoven on their side, but for every one of those, you get inundated by exhibitionistic bike shaggers

CINCINNATI, Mar. 28, 2008--------------------------------------------------------------------------------(AP) A man arrested in Cincinnati on a charge of disorderly conduct remained in custody Friday because a judge refused to reduce a $1 million bond that was imposed on a charge he stole $21 in products nearly 18 years ago.

Gary Weaver, 41, of Owingsville, Ky., was arrested Wednesday, and court officials found out that there was a warrant for him from 1990.

A judge dealt with the disorderly conduct charge on Thursday by sentencing Weaver to the one night he already had spent in jail. But he refused to reduce the original bond, which was imposed after Weaver allegedly used fake rolls of dimes to pay a store for a $21.64 purchase.

The store found that the coin rolls were filled with pennies, with dimes on each end. The crime was elevated to a felony because Weaver had a prior theft conviction, an assistant prosecutor said.

Hamilton County Municipal Court Judge Richard Bernat refused to lower the $1 million bond that was set on the theft charge from 1990.

Published: March 28, 2008 at 6:11 PMPrint story Email to a friend Font size:ATLANTA, March 28 (UPI) -- An Atlanta bar owner said his "Bum Bot," a robot he created to chase drug dealers and prostitutes out of his neighborhood, is successful in scaring criminals.

Rufus Terrill said he regularly sends the remote-controlled Bum Bot -- which he created from a Cajun meat cooker, a mechanical scooter, a walkie-talkie wired to a home-alarm speaker, an infrared camera, a spotlight and a homemade water cannon -- out to patrol the neighborhood around his bar after dark, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.

He said drug dealers and prostitutes encountered by his creation are confronted with a warning that if they don't immediately leave the area, they will be blasted by the water cannon.

"It scares the bejesus out of 'em," Terrill said.

However, Anita Beaty, executive director of the non-profit Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless, said the robot, which frequently targets people surrounding a homeless shelter nearby the bar, hinders more than it helps.

"Not everybody outside our building is a drug dealer, and when they are, we want them arrested as much as (Terrill). A robot is not the way to solve anything," she said.

I tried to copy the following fascinating item from my local paper The Stroud News and Journal, 26th March 08. However, it is not available on-line.

So here it a typed up copy......

"Annette Emms of the Stroud branch of the Embroiderers Guild will be giving a talk entitled 'How would you like to make a pair of fairy shoes?' on Friday at Whitminster Village Hall. It will be about her fascination with all things magical and on Saturday she will demonstrate how to make her delicate 'fairy shoes' in a workshop starting at 10am."

A friend of ours who has a daughter at university in Devon told us that the daughter has a new boyfriend. He is the leader of a group of about 60 people who dress up as elves and fairies and spend weekends living out fantasy scenarios, camping.....and so on. Sometimes for the entire weekend they stay in character, otherwise they, remaining in costume, revert to being themselves for a BBQ.

Initially I thought she said 'Furry' rather than 'Fairy' as I know that in the US they have conventions of people dressed as creatures. But this Fairy one was news to me. Seemingly 60 or so is a smallish troop, some have 200 in them. These larger ones tend to go in for mock fighting. There are also some who dress as Vikings and enact 'mock rape and pillage'.